Why Do Some People Struggle with Mental Health While Others Don't?

 Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

 A warm welcome to each worshiper today. We celebrate you and offer you our friendship and love. We are a congregation of people who seek to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ in His compassion and acceptance of everyone while growing more aware of what it really means to be Christians today.

As a Reconciling Congregation, EPUMC affirms the sacred worth of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities and welcomes them into full participation in the fellowship, membership, ministries, and leadership of the congregation.

 

 

 

943 Palmer Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12309 / 518-374-4306 epumc943@gmail.com / www.easternparkway.org

Order of Worship

August 20, 2023

10:00 a.m.

*You are invited to rise in body or spirit.

 

Prelude

Greeting and Announcements

Mission Statement:

We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.

Call to Worship:

We gather here this day to hear God’s word for us.

We praise God for the opportunity to gather together.

We are sent forth from this place to share God’s transforming love.

Lord, encourage us and empower us to do your will. AMEN.

*Hymn               Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah          #127

Prayer of Confession:

There are far too many times, O Lord, when we have neglected or ignored the needs of others because it just wasn’t convenient for us to help. We backed away with excuses on our lips and indifference in our hearts. Forgive us and set us on the right path of service and compassion in the name of Jesus who modeled faithful living for us. Remind us that we are residents of a global community. Help us to hear the plight of those who have been voiceless. With the gifts that we have and the love of Christ, direct our lives in compassionate service to others. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.

Assurance:

Through the abundance of God’s mercy and forgiving love, you are empowered to be disciples, to reach out to others, to offer the words and deeds of hope in a struggling world. God’s blessings are poured over you for this service.

Scripture Reading Job 1: 20-22; 2: 11-13

20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.

Job’s Three Friends

11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all these troubles that had come upon him, each of them set out from his home—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together to go and console and comfort him. 12 When they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept aloud; they tore their robes and threw dust in the air upon their heads. 13 They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

Sermon                                 Why Do Some People Struggle with Mental Health While Others Don’t?

Friends, we’re now on the 5th week of Stump the Preacher 2023, sermons requested by you and then researched by me. Every single year since I began Stump the Preacher, someone has asked to hear what the Bible teaches about mental health. This year was no exception. And this year, of all people, the person who requested the mental health topic was none other than Sean’s therapist! Sean mentioned this sermon series to his therapist, John, while glowing about how much he loves his amazing wife (liberties taken), and John actually threw his own topic in the hat because he was so intrigued: Why do some people struggle with mental health issues while others don’t? Does the Bible offer any wisdom on that? 

And I really feel this question. Life is hard, we all know that. No one gets through this life unscathed. Sometimes we hit road bumps, and we need help getting through and over them. The role a professional like John serves is to stand a hundred feet away from the road with you to get a broad look at the bump, to guide you in seeing what happened from a different perspective, and to help you decide what you’re going to do next. But a guy like John can also see what we do in one another: not all of us hit those bumps the same. Not all of our roads are equal. And there’s a huge disparity in the cars we get to drive, if you’ll allow me to extend this metaphor a little farther. Some of our friends are constantly swerving around huge potholes, and seem to just roll with it. Some of our friends crash right into a huge obstacle, but then heal relatively well. And some of our friends are struggling the moment they pull out of their driveway. They hit what looks like a small rock to us, and their car is so damaged from that collision that they have to get out and push until they’re home again. How are we all so different? And how can we help one another?

I’ll preface this, of course, by saying that I have some counseling training and experience as a pastor, but I’m not a mental health professional. This is my spiritual perspective. When you need a clinical perspective, I’m happy to help you find your very own John.

The short and dirty answer is that we’re all very different, God loves and cares for us all, and we have a responsibility to care for one another without judgment. But I think that point lands the best through the eyes of our friend Job.

Some background: Job is classified as a book of writings, or poetry, and sits right next to the Psalms for that reason. Though it’s entirely possible that Job was a real person, I’ve always read his story from the assumption that he wasn’t, and rather that the author of Job was using this story to teach the audience about suffering. It’s also highly speculated among biblical scholars that Job had multiple authors, because the story has two distinct voices. The first voice of this story is the one I’m focusing on today, the expository voice that sets up all the details and introduces Job’s friends. Then it looks like that author steps out for a lunch break, and the second voice steps in, and Job and his three friends start waxing philosophical about God’s role in the suffering of humans. I’ll leave that portion of Job for another day, because the first two chapters tell us absolutely everything we need this morning.

The story begins in heaven. God’s chillin’ with the angels, and admiring the actions of the humans down on earth. Suddenly the Satan character rolls in on his Harley and tells God that he doesn’t believe people are all that great. God says, well look at Job! He’s such a great guy! And Satan retorts, Oh, you mean that Fortune 500 guy in the wealthy suburb in the huge house with the white picket fence, the hot wife, the cherubic children, and the Tesla in the driveway? He’s good because he’s got it so easy. Take it all away, and we’ll see how “good” he is.

So Job loses literally all of it–the livestock, all of his servants, his crops, his children, his home, and then his health as his body gets covered in boils. His wife tells him this would be a great time to switch religions, since this one doesn’t seem to be working out so great, God clearly isn’t helping him. I’ll talk about her reaction in a minute, as well as Job’s, but first, I want to highlight his three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They hear that Job is in peril, and they immediately travel to go see him. When they see Job and the rubble that used to be his home from a distance, they’re shocked and they barely recognize him. But when they reach Job, their actions express nothing but compassion. They cry with him, they tear their clothes with him, an ancient ritual of grieving, and they sit in silence by his side. No platitudes, no false promises, no bad theology, and no judgment. This moment doesn’t require any words at all, just solidarity.

So then there’s the issue of Job’s wife, and how we often think like her: does God cause suffering? To borrow some of the awful platitudes that Job’s friends spared us of, does God put us through hard stuff to teach us a lesson, or to make us stronger? Does everything happen for a reason? If you, or a loved one, are really struggling with mental health in this life, is it God’s plan so that you’ll gain wisdom?

In a word: no.

We learn from everything we experience, we endure, and often emerge stronger from the hard times, and when we gain wisdom, we share it with one another. But none of that is God’s plan. What’s God’s plan is the love.

For that matter, we have this issue of the Satan character messing with Job. Is he the answer to John’s question? Do some people struggle with their mental health so much more than others because Satan’s messing with them today rather than someone else?

Also no.

If you’ve known me a while, you know that I don’t believe in “Satan” or “the devil”, and that I don’t think there’s anything in our Bible or our creeds that require you to believe in a supernatural bad boy. some people of faith, and clergy, will argue in the other direction, and it’s their right to do so. If your imagination of the universe includes a devil, I have no proof to the contrary, and maybe such a being does make a sport of throwing darts at us. But I don’t think so. In a way, that’s the easier explanation. If “the devil” causes all of our issues, all of our suffering, and all of our mental health maladies, then that answers so many of our questions.

The direction I’m going to point you in is the harder road to walk: there’s a lot in this life that’s just beyond us to understand. The American Psychiatric Association has published five editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, also known as the DSM, and many more editions will come before even the professionals can presume to understand the human mind. We recognize mental health issues that no one knew anything about even a few decades ago, and by the time my kids are grown up I’m sure that what I learned as a psych major in college will be obsolete. 

What I can tell you is what I know from life experience: you have no idea what someone is carrying. And the size of someone’s burden is up to their perspective, not yours. Some of our beloveds are devastated by hitting an objectively small bump in the road because it’s the 500th such bump they’ve hit, and their VW Beetle can’t take it. Some of us are barreling down the road in a Hummer, and we never feel the potholes, even in the depths of construction season. And some of us can afford more help, maybe in the way of a car with a bunch of fancy self-driving technology that avoids the bumps and crevices. 

What I also know is this: if you do hit that proverbial bump in the road and blow a tire, it makes all the difference in the world if your friend is sitting shotgun, and they know how to work a jack. And if your engine cuts out while you’re still a mile from home, you’ll get to safety a lot faster if all your passengers get out and help you push. In other words, in a world full of Jobs, sitting in the ashes and grieving whatever they are, our role is to be the friends that sit and grieve with them. We can’t judge or rationalize why they feel the way they do, we can’t begin to understand why their body and mind process trauma, loss, and life experience in the way they did, and very little we say will fix anything. None of that is our job–unless, of course, you’re John. As for the rest of us, our role is to be the community that supports one another, and helps us get through whatever it is or will be together.

Amen.

*Hymn                       Many Gifts, One Spirit                    #114, v 1 and 3

Offering

Offertory

*Doxology #94

*Prayer of dedication           

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

“Loving Creator, we come to you on this day because we know that you are a God of love and compassion. We come as people of all creeds and all nations seeking your presence, comfort and guidance. We come as consumers, family members, friends, co-workers and mental health professionals. We come this day because we believe that you, Divine One, love each one of us just as we are and you walk with us on our individual journeys through life. You see the ignorance and injustice that divides and separates persons struggling with mental illness and you weep with us.

Give us courage to face our challenges and open us today to the many ways you are already working in our midst. Help us to identify mental illness as the disease it is, that we might have courage and wisdom in the face of ignorance and stigma. Inspire us as we seek to overcome fear, acquire knowledge, and advocate for compassionate and enlightened treatment and services.

Lead us as we open our hearts and homes, our communities and job opportunities, our houses of worship and communities of faith. Enable us to find ways to be inclusive of persons living with mental illness in our everyday lives. Be with doctors, therapists, researchers, social workers, and all those in the helping professions as they seek to overcome ignorance and injustice with care and compassion.

Sometimes, Divine Spirit, we feel discouraged and hopeless in the face of so many challenges. Help us to see ourselves as you see us…persons of value and worth…persons of creativity and potential. May we come to understand the interconnectedness of mind, body and spirit in bringing about health and wholeness. And may we go forward into our communities with a renewed sense of vision, hope and possibility for the future. Amen.”

Our Father, Mother, Creator God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.

*Hymn                      Spirit of Gentleness             #2120, v 1 and 4

Benediction

Postlude

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Staff

Natalie Bowerman Pastor

Betsy Lehmann Music Director

Joe White Custodian

Cassandra Brown Nursery Attendant